Weapon For The Village
by N B Higham
Summary: After the attempted kidnapping of Hinata and possible war with Kumo and their powerhouse Jinchuriki Kirabi, Danzo persuades Sarutobi into allowing Naruto to be trained in Anbu. But Hiruzen instead assigns Naruto to be trained by the best of each ninja art in the village, to make him the best he can be, for the village, and for Naruto's own sanity. Eventuall Naruto x Anko
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Author's Note: So I know, another new story. But I REALLY LOVE this idea. This is an idea that came to me as I was writing the fourth chapter of my story Apprenticed to a Shadow. This is an ANBU Naruto story, but not by the more stereotyped standards that usually follow an ANBU Naruto story. This has a twist that makes Naruto half a weapon, half an ANBU, and half himself as the cannon him is. I hope you all like the idea, I love it a lot!

* * *

Sitting behind a desk in a grimly lit room, was Danzo Shimura. The room he was in, was under ground, and the permeating smell of earth that assaulted Danzo's nose never ceased to irritate him, he really hated these caves. But it was something he had to deal with.

A knock broke the perpetual silence of the room, before the door to the closed off room opened, one of Danzo's Root officers walking in silently, before setting a tiny rolled up piece of parchment with an unbroken seal down on his desk, good, the report had arrived, a report that would most likely be the key instrument to finally getting the Kyuubi Jinchuriki under his thumb, a tool that had incredible potential if he could only get him away from Hiruzen's watchful eye for a few months.

It was all a calculated risk, but it would surely be worth it. Right now one of Danzo's elite was on his way to The Village Hidden in the Clouds disguised as a friendly Konoha merchant interested in the prospect of setting up a trade agreement between himself and a prominent vendor who had ways of getting large amounts of the minerals found in the mines spread throughout the region.

It was all a cover to try and dig up as much information on the resident Jinchuriki. It had taken months to get an in with the vendor, who vouched for the faux Konoha merchant. But if Danzo could get solid facts on the Hachibi and that he was adored as some said, he could use it to get the Kyuubi Jinchuriki put into Anbu training.

The Hachibi Jinchuriki had been trained since a child, and he used the skills he was taught to prove himself to his village, leading to his complete acceptance of the villagers, and in some cases he was seen as the protector of the Hidden Lightning Village, and he was openly adored by the populace.

It was that adoration that Sarutobi wanted so badly for Naruto, and if Sarutobi allowed Naruto to be taken in for Anbu training, it would only be too easy to slip the boy into ROOT from there, and having the Jinchuriki of the Nine Tails as a weapon was too tempting to pass up.

If he played it right, when his operative came back from his mission, Naruto would be shuttled into Anbu by the council alone, as the council had been growing in power as of late, as the too-soft Hokage let them do so. If it didn't impress Sarutobi, then the council was his next best chance, hopefully the report would be enough to convince them, as the very direct action would surely rouse Sarutobi's suspicion.

* * *

Sarutobi sighed as Danzo stood up to address the council, as if knowing that when the scared war hawk speaks to the council, he almost always stood up to speak ill of something that he had done, and to propose a different course of action, which Sarutobi almost always disagreed with.

Danzo waited a second as everyone gave him their full attention, "I would like to bring a matter before the council, regarding the Jinchuriki boy, Naruto. There are some things that I would like to share, about the Hachibi Jinchuriki in Kumo. On a mission to scout out the resident Jinchuriki of Kumogakure, an Anbu operative found out a few interesting facts about one in particular, Kirabi."

Reaching inside of the partial gray cloak that he wore, Danzo pulled out several pieces of paper, all of which had children's scribbles all over them. "These are drawings by a few children in Kumogakure, although crude, they depict Kirabi protecting Kumo from monsters and other things. Kirabi is adored by the children in Kumogakure, and revered by his fellow ninja as the strongest in the village."

Pulling photos out of his cloak, he tossed them on the table, while in different places and with different people, they all showed different Kumogakure ninja bowing to Kirabi respectfully as he passed by. "The general populace of Kumogakure adore Kirabi so much, due to the fact that he has proven himself as a defender of Kumo, and more than strong enough to do so."

Hiashi interrupted Danzo for a second to speak, "This is all great Danzo, but can I ask as to why this is being brought to our attention? Unless you have another agenda, and as to how this pertains to Naruto, this is not necessary to be brought up during a council meeting."

Danzo nodded his head, "And I have a reason. For what I am about to propose, I would ask the civilian councilmen and woman to leave the room, under act 36, stating that when discussing information pertaining to the security of the village, only shinobi of Jounin rank or suitable status be present."

There was an uproar from the civilian council at this, they were outraged at being asked to leave for anything, no matter what it was. Clearing his throat to garner attention, Sarutobi spoke up, "As it is, Danzo-san is justified in the matter if he believes it pertains to village security and should be taken as serious information. I will have to ask you all to leave, you are dismissed."

Within a minute, the civilian council had cleared the room, grumbling about it all the same. "Now Danzo-san, what could be so important that you would invoke an act not used since the third shinobi war?" Sarutobi was weary of whatever it was that Danzo had to say now, the way he was behaving was strange to say the least.

Danzo bowed his head to Sarutobi, "I believe that Naruto should be trained in Anbu effective as soon as possible. While an extreme measure for one so young, I believe that it is in both Naruto's, and the village's best interests to begin to train Naruto as soon as possible. The Hachibi Jinchuriki was trained since a young age, and I learned he has complete mastery over the Tailed Beast inside of him. Such a thing is unheard of, and every shinobi regards him as the strongest ninja in the village."

Danzo stopped for a second to scan the other people in the room, 'Good, everyone is paying rapt attention, my little stunt with act 36 got their attention.' "Such power is at his disposal, that I do not think that anyone in Konoha today has the power to defeat such a man. He is a powerhouse with unequaled power, and we have to train Naruto to match, if not best this man in a fight if it ever came to war between our two nations. Kirabi is a huge threat, and we have no one who could fight him one against one, and Naruto is the only chance that we have at doing that."

Sarutobi raised a hand to stop Danzo, "I thought that we had already spoke of this, I do not think that it is wise that Naruto be trained as a weapon Danzo, such attempts like this have always failed horribly for Konoha, and it would be unwise to try such a thing again. While Kirabi does pose a threat, Kumo has done nothing to pose as a threat to Konoha, in fact there is a political party from Kumo due in the village any day now to begin talks of a sturdier treaty between the two of us."

Danzo knew that Sarutobi's argument held sway with the other shinobi council members, "While he would be going under immense training, Naruto would have a chance to prove himself to the general populace of the village. The majority of the village uses Naruto as a scapegoat against the pain and anger they hold towards the Kyuubi. Kirabi is a hero in his village, would it only be fair to try the same for Naruto?"

There was a flicker of doubt in Sarutobi's eyes now, 'Yes, come on you pacifistic old fool! The village needs Naruto as a weapon, the other shinobi nations are training their Jinchuriki left and right, just a short few years ago Suna created a completely unstable weapon out of the Yondaime Kazekage's son, meanwhile we sit with ours sitting as the most hated person in Konoha.'

For a second, it seemed like Danzo's argument was about to persuade the Hokage, before the elderly Hokage steeled himself and spoke up, "Either way, it is too risky to make a weapon out of Naruto, I believe the right thing to do is wait."

Danzo bowed to the Hokage as he adjourned the meeting, and as he left the council chambers, he was deep in thought, 'I lost the argument for now, but Hiruzen was tempted by the idea, I only have to wait now for something to tip him in my favor.'

* * *

Little did Danzo know, the opportunity he was looking for was only too soon going to be dropped in his lap not even a week later. As it turned out, the diplomatic convoy from Kumogakure was nothing but a front for a mission, to kidnap Hyuuga Hinata, daughter of Hyuuga Hiashi in an effort to steal the Byakugan and breed their own doujutsu-wielding clan in Kumo.

There were very many serious repercussions that followed, as Kumo quickly denied any attachment to the attempted kidnapping, and seeing as the civilian diplomats knew nothing about the mission, even interrogation by Inoichi Yamanaka was useless, and seeing as how Hyuuga Hiashi killed the would be kidnapper upon discovering the deed, there was no evidence to trace back to the actual village.

The issue was escalated further as the Sandaime Raikage claimed for reparation due to Hiashi killing the man. The Raikage demanded the dead body of Hiashi, and claimed that unless they received his body, Kumogakure would declare war on Konoha.

An emergency council meeting was called, with the added members of the Hyuuga clan council as well, to discuss the best course of action. The majority of the civilian council vouched that Hiashi be given up, to avoid war. The downside of the course of action was that it would still give Kumo a set of Byakugan eyes from Hiashi's body.

It was the only course of action that the council saw that could avoid war, as Konoha's forces had been severally weakened not four years prior by the massive loss of life during the Kyuubi attack. And as it stood, the threat of Kirabi was brought to attention as well, as the Sandaime and the rest of the shinobi council realized that if Kirabi was as strong as suspected, then Konoha would have no one to match up against such a man. Oddly enough, it was Hizashi Hyuuga that proposed another solution, to give Kumo the dead body of himself, Hiashi's twin brother instead.

Hizashi was branded with the caged bird seal, meaning that when he was dead, the seal would destroy his eyes, and Konoha would not lose the Hyuuga clan head, while still not going to war. If all went correctly, then Kumo would not be able to do anything about it, as the brother of the Hyuuga clan head was still a very steep price to pay.

But even though the brother of Hiashi Hyuuga was going to die, it was not the most noteworthy thing to come out of the whole conflict.

* * *

Standing in the Hokage's office, Danzo was delighted at the turn of events. 'With the whole scandal with Kumo, Hiruzen has had to see that Kumo is a dangerous enemy, especially Kirabi. If he has called me here for what I think he has, than all of my effort will come to fruition soon.'

Sarutobi was staring at Danzo, as he thought his decision over in his head, 'This is going to be a big decision, I am just not sure if I am making the right decision for Naruto. I know this is the best decision for the village, but how would Minato feel if he knew I was sending his kid into Anbu? But the threat of Kirabi from Kumo is too much to be ignored, and the council is pushing hard for this.'

Danzo broke the silence between the two, "So I take it that this means that Naruto will be going into Anbu then? With the recent threat from Kumogakure, I know you must realize how valid of a concern that Kirabi is to the village."

Sarutobi stood up from his chair to face away from Danzo, "Yes I see that now, and as much as I do not approve of this, I believe it is the only thing that can be done, with how hard the council is now pushing for it."

There was another question that Danzo had to ask, "So if this is your decision, why bring me here to tell me, and not at the council meeting?"

Sarutobi stiffened for a second before replying, "I want you to have a hand in his training. My plan is for him to receive training from yourself, myself, Itachi Uchiha, Kakashi Hatake, Gekkou Hayate and lastly, Maito Gai. I am going full out on Naruto's training, and pulling all of the stops."

Sarutobi stopped to turn and glance at Danzo, to see him still standing quiet, "As I am sure you can tell, I am giving Naruto a wide range of sensei to balance his training. Kakashi will be his ninjutsu sensei, Gai his taijutsu sensei. Hayate is the resident kenjutsu specialist in the village, and so Naruto's kenjutsu training will fall to him. Itachi will be training him in genjutsu, as he is more likely than not the best genjutsu user in the village. It is also likely that Naruto and Itachi could relate to each other, as both are being raised as weapons for the village."

"And while your methods may have been extreme, your results in the prior ROOT Anbu cell showed you are a great behavioral training specialist. I am giving you the task of training Naruto behaviorally. You will teach Naruto to control his emotions, and think like an elite ninja. However, you are not to go nearly as far as you did with your ROOT operatives, I know your operatives had their uses, but what we need from Naruto is a symbol of the village's strength, not a mindless weapon to be pointed wherever we would wish."

Danzo nodded his head, 'Perhaps I will not be able to get Naruto in ROOT with all of these different sensei, especially if Hiruzen himself will oversee parts of his training.' Walking over to the window to look down on the village, Danzo questioned Sarutobi, "And what is it that you will be training Naruto in Hiruzen?"

"It is simple enough, I will be training Naruto to love and respect the village. While training him in a few things here and there, I will instill in him a deep love for this village, because if we do not ensure that Naruto has close ties to the village, he could become the village's destroyer rather than our savior."


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Hello, well there were a couple of ways for me to go with this chapter, seeing as it is really important to the rest of the story. As it stands, at first I thought I should go over all of Naruto's training under each sensei, or at least get his first meetings with them and go a little further into the training that he received from each person. However, seeing as how LONG that could take, I am taking a different approach to introducing what Naruto's training was like. I am going to take a short moment here to say thank you, to the 508 viewers, 48 followers and 27 people who favorited. A big thanks to those few 6 people who reviewed, nothing makes me happier than getting genuine feedback on my work from the diverse community out her on fan fiction.

Here I am going to quote and answer to a pm'd question, as I think he had a very good point, but he/she should see why I am playing out Naruto's placement into Anbu the way I am, without his consent.

Message: "…there was no indication that Naruto had a choice in the matter and while I believe he would accept it the Third seems to take that decision away from Naruto."

Reply: Sarutobi was more being forced into the matter, rather than choosing it for Naruto. The council has enough sway over Sarutobi at this point that they can push for Naruto's placement into Anbu, mostly against Sarutobi's wish. Naruto really does have no say in the matter either way, as it is decided way above him that he will join Anbu, regardless of what he wants. The council sees that they need to have someone to match Kirabi, and they are forcing Naruto to be that person.

There was a point in everyone's life that they look back at and say, this was a defining moment in my life. For some people, they have only one moment that set the course of the rest of their life, and yet for a miniscule amount of people, they have multiple instances where they faced huge decisions that were life changing, or defining. Naruto's first moment, is now.

Staring at the door that waited before him, Naruto stopped to think back to the last half of his life so far, and the largely unexpected things that had come upon him, 'To think it has been four years, half of my life spent training between the village elite, hard work after hard work, and now I finally have a way out of it.'

The last four years had been fun, challenging and in some cases, life threatening. Turning away from the door for a second, Naruto looked again at the note that lay on the table so that it would be the first thing someone would see upon entering his apartment. _"I remember very little of what my life was like before all of this training, could I really run away from what they all ask of me? Hokage-sama says I am being trained the way I am, for the protection of the village, and Danzo-sama says that the village must come before everything else."_

Stepping forward more, Naruto closed his hand around the handle for door, _"And yet, if Itachi-sempai could simply leave the village, what is there that can hold me here if I wish to leave? Surely my sensei have been friends to me, but beyond that I have nothing here, at least not now. I just wish for something more other than training, so for now I will leave. Do not worry, I will return someday, but for a while I want to go live life."_

Setting the note beside an expertly decorated Anbu mask depicting a wolf, Naruto finally pulled open the door, taking one solitary glance back before stepping over the threshold, and closing the door behind him. Naruto would not be seen by anyone in Konoha for four years, after continuous training and Anbu missions, Naruto was done. He was leaving the village to go see the world as someone more than a spy, or an assassin, before he had to come back to the village to complete his training. Besides everything else, Konoha had to come first. Kakashi and Itachi too, before he had left, had hinted to him to leave the village, to get a taste of real life before he committed himself into Anbu.

"Uhhhhhg, why do you like doing this Kotetsu? It is so beyond boring to simply sit here and watch the freaking gate for Kami's sake, and yet you had to volunteer us to be the ones picked to do this five days a week, for the next YEAR Kotetsu! We could be out doing missions and getting stronger, instead we are here, doing the lamest job in the world."

It had been nearly a week ago that Kotetsu Hagane had volunteered both himself and his best friend Izumo Kamizuki for gate guard duty, and it had been a daily accordance since then that Izumo would rant and whine about their, as the contract said, "mutually agreed upon assignment."

"Just stop whining Izumo, it's a really easy assignment, and it really is an important job, someone has to do it." Protecting the gate was an honorable enough position, and his decision to be a gate watchman definitely had nothing to do with the fact that nothing challenging ever happened to anyone on guard duty watching the gate.

That is, until the day that a mysterious figure was seen walking up the path out of the woods to the village, and from the look of him, he was definitely a high level ninja, and it was no one that Izumo or Kotetsu recognized.

Sharing a look at each other, they both dashed forward to meet the stranger, stopping him about thirty feet from the village walls. Izumo was the one to speak first, "Halt! State your name and business in Konoha."

They both took a second to analyze everything they could about the man before them, from the way he carried himself, he seemed to be a very competent fighter. This was also cemented by the fact that the man had a katana strapped onto his back, and most people who carried a sword know how to use it.

Then they both took in his attire, clad in a skin tight black T-shirt with the sleeves cut off, he wore a peculiar black vest similar to the one chuunin wear in Konoha, but with a dark red hood pulled up to conceal his hair, and cover part of his face in shadow. For pants, he wore completely black standard shinobi pants, which led down to black shinobi sandals. Also worthy of note, were dark black metal arm and leg guards that he wore, each with a crimson red swirl painted on the front of each arm and leg guard respectively.

The unknown shinobi stopped, head bent slightly so that in the grey light of early morning, his face was completely shadowed by the drawn up hood. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I am here to request a meeting with the Sandaime Hokage, and if you send word to him, I am sure he will gladly honor my request."

Izumo and Kotetsu shared a glance between the two of them, as if attempting to decide who had to stay with the strange Nin while the other went to inform the Hokage. Their hands flashed simultaneously, before Izumo groaned before he sped off into the village.

There was nearly thirty seconds of quiet as Kotetsu stared at the completely unknown Nin before him, "You are dressed in customized Leaf Shinobi equipment, and yet I have never seen you around, who are you?"

The man looked up, as Kotetsu looked into the Nin's eyes, now realizing that who he was looking at was really a just a teenage boy, probably around 14 years old. "I spent the first eight years of my life here, and while I was never technically a registered ninja, I was trained as one. I left when I first had a chance, so that I could go live normally for a while before I commit completely to the life of a shinobi."

Kotetsu seemed surprised, "So you were only a kid when you were trained? That is really extreme, considering we must have already been out of the third shinobi war, the only two shinobi who were really trained early on as kids were Kakashi and Itachi, both who were in Anbu for quite a while. It is a good thing that you left kid, considering how they both turned out."

Naruto nodded his head, pulling his hood down from his head as he shook out long shaggy blonde hair, "Yeah I heard about the Uchiha Massacre, which explains the Itachi bit, but I thought that Kakashi was just a little on the tardy side, he never really had any other quirks."

'So he knew Kakashi? That is information that will have to be filed away.' Kotetsu cleared his throat before continuing, "Well that was the case until about four years ago, and then he just up and quit being a ninja, he said that he had failed everyone he was close to, he went through a lot of tough shit in the Third Shinobi War, and in his time in Anbu, before he just finally quit. I can't say I blame him."

It was at that moment that both Kotetsu and Naruto both felt several large power signatures moving towards them form inside the village, and they both looked to see several Anbu making their way quickly to them.

There were five Anbu present, as one stepped forward in front of the others, "Naruto Uzumaki, you are to come with us, we will escort you to the Hokage."

Naruto nodded his head, before the six of them disappeared in blurs. Looking over at two of the masked Anbu, Naruto considered speaking up to say something, before he thought better of it and kept his mouth shut. Within thirty seconds they were all standing in the Hokage's office, before the Anbu bowed to the Sandaime Hokage, and left the room, leaving the two alone.

Sarutobi turned to look at Naruto, a twinkle in his eye as he smiled up from his desk at him, "It is good to see you again Naruto, after you disappeared, I was not sure when you would be coming back. Let me just say, welcome back to the village."

Naruto bowed respectfully, "It is… Nostalgic to look at the village again after four years, sometimes I thought that I would never be able to come back to the village. But in the end, the teachings I learned from both you, and Danzo-sama led me to come back, because Konoha must come first."

"While I am glad to see you Naruto, business must come first here, and I will report to all of your other sensei that you are back in the village. With you back, we will have to test your abilities, so in two days' time I will have you spar against your old sensei, except for me and Danzo of course."

Naruto nodded his head, "I expected as much, though there are other sensei I have that should be arriving in the village sometime tomorrow, as they wanted to make sure they were behind me a ways so I could explain why they are both here. In the four years I was gone, within a year I realized there was only so much I could teach myself, so I began to search for suitable sensei while I was out of the village."

Sarutobi was surprised by this fact, "Well as long as I know who they are, it should be fine."

Naruto smiled brightly as Sarutobi, the first show of emotion that Naruto had actually allowed on his face, not including the slight affection in his voice as he spoke to Sarutobi, "Well the first one is a man who's help I greatly needed in the art of Fuuinjutsu, as it was one of two areas that my training had been lacking. The other man was the only person I saw that would be able to help me in training to control the Kyuubi's chakra. Although his help was much harder to get, I am far better with the help he has given than had I not gotten his help."

'Who on Earth could Naruto have gotten to help him with Fuuinjutsu and controlling the Kyuubi's chakra? Both subjects are not exactly common knowledge to most people.' Standing up from the desk, Sarutobi had to ask, "So who's help did you get in these two areas?"

"Well, after being trained by the best sensei that Konoha had to offer, I looked for the best possible sensei I could for Fuuinjutsu, and the world's best Fuuinjutsu master that wasn't holed up in a village was Jiraiya of the Sennin. He has been a great asset to my training in the last three years. And if you are wondering why he didn't tell you about this, it is because I asked him not to."

Sarutobi looked at Naruto in bewilderment, before nodding his head, "It was sooner than he was supposed to, but it had already been planned for Jiraiya to train Naruto, as he had trained his father before him.

"And my other sensei is also the best that the world had to offer as far as being able to control Biju chakra goes, and that is Kirabi of Kumogakure, Jinchuriki of the Hachibi. While it took nearly half of a year to get his help, the last two years of training to control Biju chakra have led to a complete equality between me and the Kyuubi, and I can currently control up to four tails worth of the Kyuubi's chakra."

To say that Sarutobi was stunned, was an absolute understatement. After receiving the tutelage of Konoha's resident taijutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu, and kenjutsu masters, he then went and got the help of Konoha's seal master, and received help from Kirabi of all people, the person who was unknowingly the biggest factor in Naruto's training anyway.

'Naruto was around mid-jounin level when he left with the four years' worth of training that he had before, even if he was only eight. Under Jiraiya and Kirabi, two of the world's most powerful ninja for another three years, how much has he progressed?'


End file.
